Hey it’s Professor Dave, let’s talk about indefinite articles.
English and Italian use slightly different words to describe the same grammatical concept.
English uses the word indefinite, while Italian uses the word indeterminativo, but they both
designate something that is general or non-specific.
Looking at the Latin derivation, in means not.
Finis and terminus both mean boundary.
So while the two languages use different roots for the word, the idea of referring to something
without boundaries is the same.
An indefinite article will therefore refer to something general, unspecified, or unrestricted.
In English, we might say: I saw a car.
The word a, the indefinite article, means it could have been any car, any make, any
model, any color.
In Italian it’s the same, except that the indefinite article also coincides with the
word meaning the number one.
So asking for a coffee will be the same thing as asking for one coffee.
English has just two indefinite articles.
We will use “a” if the following word starts with a consonant, as in “a banana”,
and “an” if the following word starts with a vowel, as in “an apple”.
In Italian it’s a little trickier because there are genders, so we have to practice
using different forms for masculine and feminine words as well as watching the beginning of
the following word.
So let’s make two columns, one for masculine, one for feminine, and see how the indefinite
articles work when applied to words starting with consonants, words starting with special
sounds, and words starting with vowels.
For the words that begin with consonants, gatto is masculine, so we say un gatto.
We would follow the same rule to get un libro, or un bicchiere.
Pizza is feminine, so it’s una pizza.
Studente begins with a special sound, which as we recall means it must be masculine, so
it’s uno studente.
We would also say uno specchio, or uno sbaglio.
There are no special sounds in feminine words, so we leave this spot blank.
Then for the vowels, elefante is masculine, so it’s un elefante.
Same goes for un orso, or un albero.
Aranciata is feminine, so it’s un’aranciata, with an apostrophe after the N. Same goes
for un’insalata.
So just remember these rules for masculine and feminine indefinite articles, as they
apply to words beginning with consonants, special sounds, or vowels.
Let’s see if we can put this to use.
Say you are at a restaurant and there are many things on the menu you want to try.
They are all pictured below, along with the name of the item.
But this waiter is a stickler for grammar, and you’re only going to get what you want
if you order correctly.
So you say, cameriere, posso avere… and then what?
Fill in as many indefinite articles as you can right now.